One year ago, you rolled your own visual event map with Timeline, an open source widget.

Linux only: Search through and launch programs and Microsoft Office documents from the new Google Desktop for Linux Beta 1.1, released Friday. The update to Google's Beagle alternative also includes better image search and customisable hotkeys.

Mac users: You already know how to customise shortcut arrows on your Windows PC, and you can do the same on aliased folders and files on the Mac (which include a small black arrow on the lower left by default). To remove aliased item arrows entirely, a simple Terminal command plus a killall Finder does the trick. Otherwise you can create a custom icon and copy it deep in the bowels of OS X to overwrite the default. Looks like another nice Finder customisation for those of you who use aliases often.

Marketing guy Steve Rubel shares a fantastic list of his favorite bookmarklets for social sites as well as web-as-desktop apps. Drag and drop these to your browser toolbar to convert Gmail text into GCal events, take screenshots of the current page, make a page mobile-friendly, convert a YouTube video, get quick access to Facebook or Twitter, or edit the current page's images online at Picnik. For some more "classic" bookmarklets check out our previously posted feature, Ten Must-Have Bookmarklets.

The next release of video game franchise extraordinaire - The Sims - will include climate change as one of the factors which can affect a player's city, writes the EcoGeek blog. The game, SimCity Societies, comes out next month.

"Players can build their cities with ecofriendly options, such as wind turbines, hydrogen fuel stations, and green buildings. Their decisions will ultimately drive the climate of their city and even imperil it with disasters should their CO2 levels go too high. Pollution also affects the health of the population, and quality of life. Building these green options are more costly than conventional ones, which lends a realistic approach to the game as well."

 

We interviewed Kate to find out more about A Climate Affair, podcasting and internet radio.

If you've ever found an injured native animal by the side of road, you know it can be quite nervewracking if you don't know what you can do to help them. Often if you come across an injured animal, they've been hit by a car, so they're traumatised and need medical attention - just like a person would!

First of all you need to remember that unlike household pets, wild animals are not used to being handled and are very susceptible to stress. You want to minimise their human contact and thus their stress level!

There are numerous groups dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating native animals, including WIRES - the NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Information Service. Their website has a guide on what to do with an injured animal:

Step 1

Remove any threat to the animal. This may mean locking up cats and dogs until the animal is rescued by a licensed rescuer.

Step 2

Minimise stress by placing a towel or blanket over the animal, then gently place in a box. Put the box in a warm, quiet, dark room and DO NOT DISTURB. The stress associated with human contact can result in death.

Step 3

Seek advice.

Fauna Search is a handy online tool which lets you look up a wildlife rescue or rehabilitation group in your local area. Or if you're in NSW you can call WIRES on 1300 094 737. Your local parks and wildlife service is another option.

 WIRES (or the equivalent group in your state) will give you advice on what to do until a trained rescuer comes to take the animal to a vet or foster carer. The foster carer will look after the animal until it is ready to be returned to the wild. You may be tempted to care for the animal yourself, but remember that it's against the law to keep native animals taken from the wild. They must be passed on to an authorised carer with a licensed wildlife rescue organisation.

According to WIRES, Australia holds the world record for the country with the greatest number of species extinctions in the last 200 years. Considering the amazing and unique species we've already lost - like the Tasmanian Tiger - let's take care of our four legged friends.

 What to do with an injured animal [WIRES] 

If the sheer, skyrocketing cost of electricity isn't enough to make you start looking to reduce your power bill, then maybe a reminder that electricity = fossil fuels burned = more carbon emissions = global warming will remind you that there's more than just a large electricity bill at stake here.

Here's some stats from the Treehugger website:

1. Of the $US250 billion spent per year on powering computers worldwide, only about 15% of that power is spent computing-the rest is wasted idling.

2. Electronics make up 70 percent of all hazardous waste.

3. Making the average PC requires 10 times the weight of the product in chemicals and fossil fuels.

4. 15 billion batteries are produced annually worldwide.

5. 40% of the energy used for electronics in your home is used while these devices are turned off.

Geek households tend to have an above average number of computers, electronic appliances and gadgets, so it's fair to say we're using more than the average amount of power per household! Fortunately, Treehugger wrote a really cool guide with geeks in mind. It goes waay beyond the simple 'turn off appliances at the wall' advice (although that could potentially save you around 10% off your power bill) to look at ways to reduce and optimise your use of batteries, and make decisions about extending your PC life or recycling it.

The guide also has a whole bunch of links to other resources, which range from places selling green-friendly PC peripherals, such as the recycled wood iPod case, to websites giving information about PC recycling programs. Worth checking out. 

 How to Green your Electronics [Treehugger]

And if you're interested in taking it a step further and buying 'green power' for your home, check out the Green Electricity Watch website, which provides a ranking of green electricity products to help consumers choose which ones make the most difference to Australia's and their own greenhouse gas emissions.

For those of you who want the availability of an always-on computer, but don't want to waste power during its idle time, I'd point you back to our recently published hack which lets you save energy with an always available computer.

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to attend an event on climate change where Australian of the Year Dr Tim Flannery was speaking. He's very blunt in his assessment of how slow Australia has been in acting on global warming, but the thing which struck me the most was when he spoke about the predicted human impact of rising sea levels. He posed the question "How do you deal with several million people on the move and looking for new homes?" It really helps put things in perspective - reducing your own carbon footprint and use of fossil fuels doesn't seem quite so onerous after that!

Flannery has published several books including one on global warming called The Weather Makers. The book's website also has a handy list of 11 Realistic Ways You Can Help Reduce Global Warming, such as choosing energy efficient household appliances and lights, The page includes contact details for the power companies which provide accredited 'green power'. Basically what that means is by paying slightly more for your power, you can choose for some or all of your power to be sourced from renewable energy sources such as solar or wind - reducing your reliance on non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels, which create the carbon emissions responsible for global warming.

11 Realistic Ways You Can Help Reduce Global Warming

Links and Resources - Accredited Green Power suppliers, Carbon Footprings, Car, Water

Thomas Edison, one of the world's most prolific inventors, apparently also took a lot (more than five million pages have been found) of extremely detailed notes. Life improvement blog Lifehack.org suggests that one of the most useful benefits to such a detailed note system was there was no need to reinvent the wheel— in other words, Edison didn't have to unnecessarily repeat work that he had already completed, because his note system had it all recorded. How does this apply to us? If we want to be as productive as possible, Edison's example is a good one to follow, and a detailed note-taking system (such as this one) is imperative.

Don't have time for a lengthy explanation of shutter speed, exposures, and framing? No problem. You can get the basics of really good digital photography simply and quickly with iDigitalPhoto's sixty second guide to improving your photos. A lot of ground is covered here: anything from lighting to depth of feeling. By the time you finish reading you should have a firmer grasp on what it takes to take a better photo.

If you're researching medical terms, you might want to check out Curehunter, a medical dictionary that allows you to search for disease, drug, or therapy information. Type in any term that fits in these parameters, and you'll get in-depth explanations as well as a visual "tree" of related terms. Click on any of these terms to explore relationships; not all of them are necessarily absolutely relevant to your original query, but they do provide good fodder for further research.

Gift wrap supplies are probably the last thing on the priority list to get organised, but as we dash headlong into the holiday season very soon, it's probably a good idea to start thinking about it. Organisational blog Unclutterer suggests using a plastic organiser specifically for gift wrap supplies to make this happen; however, you could also use a simple plastic shoe organiser or a flat bin that slides under your bed for easy access. How do you organize your gift wrap supplies, if you have any? Let's hear in the comments.

If, for whatever reason, you need to verify someone's email address, try Verify-Email.org, a free email address verifier. Just enter in the email addy, click "verify",and go. The format, domain, and user are all checked by actually connecting to the mail server to see if everything is kopasetic. Somewhat disconcerting, but sure to come in handy in some way.